


Just so that you know that you can lean on me

by StyrofoamSlashPlans



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - No Pennywise (IT), Angst with a Happy Ending, Domestic Violence, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Misunderstandings, Richie Tozier is a Good Friend, Sexism, i needed an angsty fluff fic so i made one, listened to Must Have Been the Wind while writing this, myra kaspbrak is not a good person in this fic, richie tozier is a wholesome person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:02:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24317764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StyrofoamSlashPlans/pseuds/StyrofoamSlashPlans
Summary: Richie's used to dealing with asshole men. Men were horrible, Richie would know, he is one.What Richie isn't used to is when the situation is flipped, when he knocks on a door and finds a bruised up man on the other side, eyes red from crying.He didn't know how to react but he knew he couldn't just leave him.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Myra Kaspbrak, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 4
Kudos: 137





	Just so that you know that you can lean on me

**Author's Note:**

> TW for: Abuse, injuries, domestic violence
> 
> Title from Must Have Been the Wind by Alec Benjamin

Richie hadn’t lived in a very flattering apartment building, to say the least. It had always been the scent of mildew, mold on the staircase, flickering light bulbs, and having to fall asleep to the sound of police sirens more than a few nights a week. 

But Richie was also never one to take things for granted, he knew it could be much worse compared to some things he had seen in his twenty-eight year alive. So he rarely complained, even to himself, about the rundown building. 

That didn’t mean, however, that he wasn’t thrilled when his career had stayed steady enough for a while that he could afford something better. Granted, it was still an apartment building that didn’t look like much on the outside, but the reviews for this place were much better, not that there even  _ were _ very many reviews for the old one. 

Steve, his new manager, (And yeah, he has a fucking  _ manager _ now) had said it wouldn’t be good for his image if he lived in a place there was a drug bust every other month, and who was Richie to argue? 

And this is where he ended up, all the way on the other side of the city, in a nice little building tucked between a rather large hill, and a small coffee shop, a  _ coffee shop, _ He’s living the fucking  _ dream _ . 

In addition to the sheer homely-ness of the place, he was on the first floor now, so he didn’t have to worry about stairs every time he came home with groceries or just plain tired from a long day. 

There were only five whole apartments in the building, (Two on the ground floor, three on the second floor) And a mailroom where they could actually get their mail from. At his old place, they just had small boxes on the outside of their doors, which mostly just led to packages being left on the ground, and ultimately, stolen. 

On his first day in the new place, his neighbors on his right side had actually visited to  _ greet him _ . It was something new, but definitely not unwelcome, to Richie. It was a man, probably around forty or fifty, and what seemed to be his son, who seemed that he couldn't have been older than twenty-five. 

His suspicions were confirmed within a few minutes, the younger of the men, Ryan was his name explained sheepishly that he didn’t live here full time, but he had just gotten through a nasty divorce and was staying with his father(“Call me Oscar”) until he could get back on his feet. 

Richie understood. Not the divorce part, Richie was never one to settle down anyway, but sometimes money was hard, it’s easier to have a parent or supportive guardian to help you through it. It would have been nice for Richie in the first few years before his career had really blossomed, and he loved his parents with all his heart, but there was no way in  _ hell _ he was going back to Derry, he might have a breakdown if he ever even stepped foot in Maine again. 

They had given him a run down of all of his neighbors and the area, explaining to him that since two of the apartments patrons had been put into nursing homes in the last few months, there were only two occupied apartments in the building aside from his own. Richie was  _ thrilled _ with that news. He was often labeled as a people person, it kind of came with the job, but he met his limit with boring, cranky neighbors fairly quickly in life.

They told him that they lived in the apartment next to his, he already knew that though, he had been walking to his apartment when they left theirs and saw him in the hallway. 

The older man said the apartment above theirs had been occupied for over two years by a university senior, Tessa, who wasn’t home all that much, but when she was, she was very polite, maybe a bit shy but very nice. He explained to Richie that Tessa had a long-term girlfriend that she stayed with a lot of the time, and seemed to study Richie’s reaction to that information, looking for negative behavior. Evidently not being able to read Richie’s expression, the man’s voice had gotten harsher. 

_ “Tess’s quiet, but she’s a real spitfire if you set her off, I wouldn’t advise giving her shit about her relationship.”  _

Richie decided two things in those seconds. The first being that he would never get used to being able to be  _ open _ about your sexuality around strangers, the other being that he likes this man a  _ whole lot _ more now. 

_ “No, no, I won’t, I’m not-”  _ Richie’s voice had gotten quieter on instinct. _ “That’d kinda be a hypocrite move, y’know?” _

It took the man a few seconds to figure it out before he perked up, smiling. And yeah. Richie got  _ really _ lucky with neighbors. 

He also said the apartment above Richie’s had only been occupied for about two weeks, by a couple around Richie’s own age, a man and a woman. They apparently weren’t very social with the other apartment patrons, the two other men didn’t even know their names. Richie didn’t really think much of it, he wasn’t exactly social with his neighbors in his old apartment either, it’s just not all that appealing to him, but he thinks maybe he could get used to these people.

After that was out of the way, the men decided to ask Richie a bit about himself, sharing their opinions on some things, even asking a bit about his career, which Richie was fairly vague about, they didn’t need to know about all of that yet. 

By the time the two men left Richie’s apartment, it had been fairly late, seeing as they had arrived around eight P.M. and had talked with Richie for about two hours- wow had it really been that long?

Richie decided that a late dinner was better than no dinner and heated up some leftovers he had made the night before, then took a long shower (The bathrooms were  _ so much _ nicer here, less mold) and by the time he laid down in bed it was almost Eleven. 

He had only been laying down for about a half-hour when he heard it. It was the distinct sound of glass shattering, maybe a small vase or glass cup, followed by the muffled sounds of a woman yelling something. Richie’s eyes snapped open.

It was definitely coming from the apartment above his, and it didn’t sound good. It was pretty faint, probably only audible to him, considering Oscar had explained earlier that Tessa had been out all week. 

He heard quiet sobbing, it was hard to tell who it was by listening. Then he heard a female voice, wavering, say;

_ "Why would-?!”  _ The rest was too muffled and jumbled for Richie to make out. The voice sounded troubled, borderline manic. Fuck, was this an abuse situation? Or a fight? Was this woman going to be okay? What if someone just dropped a dish or something and it resulted in a heated argument?

Richie shouldn’t intervene, he decided after a few moments of contemplation, it was none of his business and it was nearly midnight, he should keep to himself. 

But he couldn’t stop thinking about it. What if this woman was in trouble? What if she was in danger? They said it was a couple that lived up there, what if he  _ beat _ her? 

Richie quickly shook the thought from his head but rolled over to stand up, pulling on some clothes from the floor to at least look  _ decent _ . He couldn’t bear the thought of standing by if he could prevent something bad from happening. 

Men were assholes sometimes, Richie  _ knows _ , he is one after all, but he could never understand why someone would do something such as hitting a person they love. Of course the men that did that probably didn’t truly love their partners though, why would they do that if they did?

He slipped his shoes on and quickly grabbed his key, just in case, and stepped out of his apartment. It was quieter in the hallway compared to his room, he could only hear the yelling if he listened closely. 

He quickly made his way up the stairs and past the door that was presumably Tessa’s. 

When he neared the offending door, the shouts were louder,and more noticable. His eyes widened when he heard a loud smacking sound from the other side of the door. 

Taking a deep breath and not giving himself time to back out, he swiftly but loudly rapped his fist against the door. Almost immediately, the shouting ceased, everything was silent for a few minutes before he heard footsteps nearing the door. A wave of anxiety washed over him in that moment. What would he even say? Who would answer the door? What if he read the whole situation wrong. 

Expecting the worse, he prepared to see a girl open the door with bruises, mayb a hoodie to cover up possible injuries, or maybe a man, red in the face and looking angry, ready to tell Richie to mind his own business, Richie had been greeted by both in his lifetime, neither of which were too pleasant to see. 

Instead, Richie was surprised when the door opened to reveal a man  _ much _ shorter than Richie standing on the other side, his eyes were dry, but Richie could see the tell-tale red circles and puffiness that he had been crying. Taking in the man’s appearance, he noticed that he had quite a large pink-red mark blooming on his cheek-bone, he was wearing dark pants, a red t-shirt and grey shoes, and he looked  _ defeated _ . His expression was unreadable, his shoulders were hunched, and his shirt was slightly rumpled. When Richie’s eyes found the man’s wrist, he noticed there were fresh purple bruises that were obviously left from another person’s hand grabbing his wrist far too hard, judging by the fingerprint shape and crescent shaped indents in front of each mark left from longer nails. 

In the few seconds before either of them said anything, Richie looked over the man’s shoulder, he could see a blond woman in the apartment, scowling at them, red in the face and looking frustrated. 

Richie didn’t know what to think, he had never encountered something like this. Wait, what exactly  _ was _ he encountering? Was this a domestic violence situation, or just a misunderstanding? Was that sound heard in the hallway this  _ man _ being hit?

“Yes?” The man’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts and back into the situation, the man’s voice sounded scratchy and low, maybe strained from yelling, or crying. It took Richie a moment to figure out what to say, and another moment to find out how to say it.

“Uhm, I uh… I heard some noise coming from here, is everything okay?” Realization dawned on the man’s face that they had been heard, then a look of panic overtook his features, but he seemed to try and cover it up. 

“Uh, yeah, we were just- I was just… a shelf broke, and a lot of stuff fell and…” Richie didn’t buy it, he should have, but he didn’t. Richie is many things, but gullible isn’t one. He spared another glance over the man’s shoulder and saw the woman wasn’t standing there anymore, probably pretending to have nothing to do with any of it. 

Richie hesitated before bringing his voice lower to make sure he wasn’t heard by the woman. 

“Look, I’m not an idiot, I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but I know a tense situation when I see one, this is kind of setting off alarms. Is everything okay?” He asked again. The man seemed to be slightly taken aback by his forwardness, quickly snapping his head around to look behind him, probably to check for the woman, Richie knew. 

“Everything’s just fine. Now please, it’s late and we were getting ready to go to bed…” Richie knew he was trying to get rid of him, but he couldn’t just  _ leave _ . There was something very wrong here and Richie wouldn’t forgive himself if he let it continue, but what could he do? He didn’t have all the facts, knew nothing about the situation other than that he heard loud noises and saw a bruised man at the door. 

“Of course, sorry to intrude? Are you sure you’ll be okay?” He asked one last time, hoping to god the man would answer truthfully. 

“Thank you for checking, but I promise, everything is fine, I just knocked over some dishes.” RIchie nodded, still not convinced, but let the other man close the door after mumbling a low, ‘ _ Have a good night’ _ . He stood outside the door for a few moments, catching the last parts of a sentence. 

“ _ -was just someone looking for the neighbors, I told them they had the wrong place.”  _ So, the man lied, there was obviously something going on.

  
  
It was almost two hours later and Richie still hadn’t fallen asleep, he couldn’t stop thinking about the man. He could still hear them arguing, it was quieter and there weren’t any other sounds besides voices, but Richie couldn’t bear the thought of leaving him like that. 

It was something new to Richie, he had never come across a situation like this, never even considered it could happen, but here it was. Richie was used to dealing with bastard, misogynistic men, but he had never been in a reversed situation like this, how could he deal with this? It was a  _ woman.  _

After shifting around in bed for a while, he slowly made the decision to try again, quickly slipping on the same outfit and shoes from earlier, he made his way up the stairs and to the apartment. 

This time it took a little less time for the door to be opened, but it was the man again, he looked surprised to see Richie. The mark on his face was fading just a bit, but it was still noticeable. 

“You again?” The man said in disbelief. Richie nodded solemnly. 

“Yeah, I, uh, I know you said you were okay, but I couldn’t just  _ leave _ it like this. There’s clearly something going on.” After remembering they weren’t alone, Richie looked around the man, letting out a breath when he saw the woman wasn’t there. The man seemed to consider this before looking over his own shoulder, after a moment, shouting quietly behind him;

“Myra, I’ll be back in a bit, okay?” The woman, Myra, was yelling an objection from another room when the man stepped outside next to Richie and pulled the door shut behind him. He didn’t look any calmer, kind of panicked.

“Do you have anywhere we can go? She’ll be out any minute-” Nodding understandingly, Richie took the man’s hand and led him towards the stairs. 

  
  
“We don’t have to talk about it.” Richie said calmly after a few moments of silence in which the other man was looking ready to say something about thirty times, but then deciding against it. 

The man looked surprised, but then nodded and took a sip of his tea, which Richie had offered him when they first entered his apartment. 

“Could you tell me your name though?” Richie asked carefully. 

“Eddie.” The man said, then he met Richie’s eyes. “Yours?” Richie smiled kindly, trying to show it was okay.

“I’m Richie, I just moved in here.” Eddie nodded thoughtfully and returned to look at his mug. They sat in silence for a couple more moments, the only sounds being the quiet sipping of hot tea from both of them. It was nearing Three A.M. and tomorrow was a Tuesday but Richie’s never cared about anything less, he’d sit with this man all night to make sure he’s okay. 

“I’m really sorry… Is it okay if I stay here, just for the night? I don’t want to go back when she’s in a bad mood…” Richie’s eyebrows raised and he could see the pain and fear in Eddie’s eyes, it broke his heart. 

“Of course! I can get you some blankets and pillows for the couch, or I could take the couch I don’t mind-” Eddie shook his head.

“No, the couch sounds nice, thank you.” He said quickly, looking almost apologetic. Richie waited until Eddie was looking at him again before speaking. 

“It’s okay, beyond okay, for you to stay here. I can’t say I know much about what you’re going through, but I’ll help in any way I can.” He said truthfully. The other man smiled a little, but seemed put off by that. 

“You can always come here, even stay here for awhile if you want. I just can’t bear to see that happen to someone… I’ll always be here for you, anytime. And we can talk about it when you’re ready, okay?” Eddie nodded while casting his eyes down at his now empty mug. 

When they decided it was time to sleep, Eddie did end up taking the couch, though Richie had tried to sway him into taking his bed, he wouldn't hear it. 

It was a lot easier for Richie to fall asleep knowing that Eddie was safe for the night. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it, make sure to leave comments and kudos and let me know what you think!


End file.
